Nintendo Restarting Development on Metroid Prime 4

Is Metroid Prime 4 Still Coming to the Nintendo Switch?

Otaku Voice Staff

Nintendo of Japan released a video announcement on their channel on the current development state of Metroid Prime 4. Sadly, they are comepletely starting over on the title. Even though we didn’t know much about the game, fans of the series and Nintendo Switch owners definitely had it top on many most anticipated lists. See the video below –

Takahashi-san has revealed they have very succinctly canceled the current development of the game, and sent development over to Retro Studios. Retro Studios was the American development team that built the first three titles in the series. They have been primarily been working on the modern Donkey Kong Country series recently [1].

Its not a particularly surprising announcement. Games get canceled and restarted all the time. It wasn’t too hard to read the tea leaves on Metroid Prime 4 after a lack of reveal at the Game Awards back in December. Everyone was predicting something to come forward related to the game. What is surprising is that the announcement is a full 3 minute video from Takahashi Shinya, one of the top heads of development at Nintendo.

Why is this being released now? The obvious guess is that Nintendo doesn’t feel like it can release another Nintendo Direct and announce 2019’s lineup without questions about Metroid Prime 4. This announcement video can now quietly handle that threat. Its just comes sadly at the expense of a hotly anticipated title. Fortunately it is being restarted even if we are years away. One last thing to note: Takahashi-san never did say this was coming to the Nintendo Switch . . .

[Source]
[1 – Retro Studios Site]
[Image via Nintendo Youtube Channel]